Sporting Notes

Shotgun patterns, either on paper or steel patterning plates, are notoriously unphotogenic, and publishers often fall back on illustrations, such as this one in Gough Thomas’s Gun Book (1970). They are misleading, since they show no pellets outside the circle—and there are many!

30 Inches, 40 Yards

Patterning a shotgun is not rocket science.  It’s not even grade nine algebra.  It’s more…
Eddie Bauer is a truly iconic name among enthusiasts of the more extreme outdoor endeavors, like camping at twenty below. Their goosedown line briefly reappeared in 2012, but it gone again.

The Proper Stuff

by Terry Wieland Apparel is not usually my bailiwick, and I don’t intend to write…
Gorgeous, no? Boss & Co. #6205, 20 gauge, made around 1915, is a self-opening over/under. It may be one of a kind. Or, it may not. Photos courtesy Rock Island Auction Company

Never Say Never.  Never!

Gorgeous, no? Boss & Co. #6205, 20 gauge, made around 1915, is a self-opening over/under.…
Double rifles of the quality of this W.J. Jeffery, built between 1929 and 1939, do not come along every day. Just seeing and handling such a rifle is a privilege.

The Fate of the Jeffery

A few of these missives ago, I alerted readers to the presence at the Rock…
Mannlicher Model 1903

Introducing the Ischler

This is not, admittedly, a puzzle that has me lying awake nights, but for many…
Over a 50-year period, O’Connor wrote more than a dozen books, and since his death at least four anthologies of his magazine work have been published.

The O’Connor Legacy

The annual gathering at the Jack O’Connor Hunting Heritage Center in Lewiston, Idaho, is part…
Meopta 8x56 MeoPro HD Plus. At roughly $800, this Czech-made glass is inexpensive by today’s standards, yet delivers performance that far out-classes what we considered the best of the best a few years ago.

Crystal Clarity

It seems like the Dark Ages now—that long-ago period when you could name the good…
Two Chapuis guns, a 20-gauge side-by-side Chasseur (top) and the 28-gauge Faisan Classic O/U. Two nice guns that could be great guns, with a little TLC.

A Pheasant Surprise

Leave us start with a confession:  I was fully prepared to dislike the Chapuis 28-gauge…
Oklahoma City gun collector and double-rifle expert Johnny McCharen. He owned the W.J. Jeffery, and considered it the finest double he’d ever seen.

The Finest Double Rifle

Rock Island’s spring premier auction is coming up this month (May 19-21, 2023) and there…
Both plugs and muffs are required for full protection shooting rifles indoors, but for shotguns muffs are rather inconvenient. The small plugs work well in conjuction with muffs, but for plugs alone, the large soft rubber plugs (right) can block out almost all noise. When shooting a shotgun, this helps considerably.

One More Admission

The subject of flinching is delicate, to say the least.  There are all sorts of…
The Winchester Model 12 is an object almost of worship among a certain slice of American shotgunners, and it deserves the respect it gets. Wieland doesn’t shoot them particularly well, but that does not make him admire them any the less.

Shotgun Meanderings

In the course of searching for some answers about some arcane aspect of shotguns, I…
Shooter on the 25 yard line. The ZZ has been released from the trap with the white flap down—a visual signal that occurs simultaneously with the launch of the bird—and its orange wings are visible against the dark green trees.

Helice, a.k.a., ZZ Birds

Most shooters are aware that trap as we know it today grew out of the…